Here are a selection of articles that appeared in the latest EE Times Europe print edition: November 5 - 18. Click on the headline to see the full story.

France finds its feet in brave startup era

Entrepreneur is a French word. Some might see a paradox in this because France, with a centrally-planned, pro-European post-war period behind it, has not yet fully embraced the individualism of the self-made business person.

Lime readies transceiver for wireless broadband

A U.K. startup focusing on configurable transceivers for broadband wireless applications, that has established a development group in Lithuania, has started sampling its first product * a reference design targeted at picocell mobile WiMAX basestations.

Freescale drives towards the all-electric car

The cooperation with ST Microelectroncis has a key function for Freescale in the automotive segment. The interview describes Freescale's strategy for chassis/powertrain electronics, FlexRay, Autosar and Power components which it does not have in its own portfolio.

Other news stories in this issue:

Will analog go fab-lite?

As digital integrated-device manufacturers increasingly turn to foundries for their production needs, with some announcing they will no longer build fabs, an inevitable question arises: Will the big analog IDMs follow the same path and move toward fab-lite or even fabless strategies? The analog vendors say no. The foundries say yes. The truth appears to be somewhere in the middle.

Salary Survey: Engineers earn satisfaction

In the greater scheme of things and for the time being, engineers--especially in North America--have it pretty good, at least according to their replies to the EE Times Annual Salary & Opinion Survey.

Startup treads path to wireless hi-fi

Touting a successful pairing of wireless and hi-fi audio, fabless chip vendor Avnera Corp. (Beaverton, Ore.) today will announce chip sets for wireless audio connections in the 2.4-GHz band that outperform data-oriented wireless connections in range, freedom from interference, automatic network configuration and full CD-quality sound.

Strong-as-steel plastic is cellophane-thin

Nanomaterials are often cited as being up to a thousand times stronger than steel, but researchers have had a difficult time transferring that strength to bulk materials. Now, an engineering professor at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) claims to have invented a "brick-and-mortar" technique that achieves that goal by mimicking the way oysters embed calcium carbonate into an organic matrix to create sea-shells--one of the strongest materials found in nature. The result is a material as strong as steel, but ultra-thin and transparent.